Blue Ridge blog

A full Saturday in the Valle...

I started Saturday hoping for a nice long run in the Valle Crucis Park. By the time I hit the park entrance I was reminded it was the Blood, Sweat and Gears morning. No sweat here. I saw my friend Tammy and she waved me to the side of the road. "Go get photos," she said. And I did. What timing. I climbed the platform 3 minutes before the 1,600+ bikes took off. I even had time to say a quick hello to friends Fay and Brenda Binning.
(Note to self: Gotta find time to catch up with them....
I did end up having
a wonderful muggy 4 mile early morning romp in the park before I met Franya and members of the HIgh Country CSA for a farm work day at Charles Church's farm. For two hours I hand weeded beets and romaine lettuce with these lovely ladies. I know more about farming. That, and I learned weeding goes so much faster when you have a bit of gossip and girlie companionship to occupy the time.
I left the farm about 10:45 and felt rather proud of my morning productivity. Later, after a couple of hours of tending to my own garden and its maintenance issues, Annie and I returned to the park so she could dip her paws in the river. I introduced her to the creek on the unpopulated side of the park where she tromp and stalked crayfish and brook trout. In the park, folks were picnicking and enjoying the mountain temperatures and outdoor activities.

But Annie and I soon learned that early worms get tired way too early and by 4 p.m., our day was pretty much over. It was deck time...not always a bad thing for a Saturday.

In making hay there is hope...

It was the first cutting of hay today in Watauga County. Things I noticed about hay while crawling through the fields: Lots of spiders, crunchiness, ichy-ness and deer hooves in the muddy plow barrows. The most absolutely wonderful thing about cut hay? Future decent weather. At least, the majority of the local farmers are betting they'll be able to make hay while the sun shines. Hope.

A population explosion in Valle Crucis

Yes indeed, the number of folks visiting the Valle increases during the summer months. Here are two of our distinguished off-the-mountain friends. Their temporary residence is the Appalachian State Goodnight Sustainable Development Farm on Dutch Creek Rd.

The sun sets on another work week (or hallelujah it's Friday)

Productivity.
Been there and done that this week.
Now it is time for Marie to do some serious R&R. First order of business this weekend is to sleep in Saturday morning...all the way to the point where my body refuses to rest any longer, which will probably be at 6:30 a.m. or when Annie barks at the roaming neighborhood bunny rabbits
Then I do believe I might go hang out at the Valle Crucis Park...or wander down the River Rd. Later in the day I hope to check out the Valle Crucis Creekside Bluegrass Festival and stop at the Mast General Store annex to see the critters from the Blue Ridge Wildlife Institute. Yes indeedy, I can't wait to play tourist in my own town, errr, Valle.

(Sunset courtesy of Mother Nature on Wednesday evening)

A Valle morning near Howell's place

As you can tell by the waist high grass, we've had plenty of rain in the Valle. This photo was taken this morning just as the sun popped through the low hanging clouds and right when Howell came out of his house and caught me sneaking around his Dutch Creek farm with my camera. He said "good morning," and I was all back at him with the greeting. Then he went about his business.

While I was snooping, I got a bad case of garden envy as I noted Howell's garden looks so much better than mine. His cabbage is huge as are his potatoes and onion plants. I really wanted to reverse my steps, hunt down Howell and pester the man with questions, but thought better of it.

On the home front: My parents visited this weekend and we bottled our first batch of ale together. We had a sweet little production line going as my husband filled the bottles while Dad and I capped them. When done, we tasted a bit of the green flat beer and I must say, I've certainly had much worse. In two or three weeks I will be more able to more accurately report our home brew results.

A Valle Crucis morning

I hope the cows who graze in this field appreciate the view.

Fleeting..

I was searching for dogwoods and instead, found a rainbow. Looks like the pot of gold is smack dab in the middle of Valle Crucis Park. No surprise here. As I crossed the Watauga River bridge today, I noticed a woman in the middle of the road. I wondered for a moment what she was doing.
Did she need help?
I looked in the direction she was staring.
Whoa! Rainbow!
I braked, backed up my Jeep, pressed my hazard button, grabbed my camera and tumbled down the side of the mountain to capture this image. Oh yeah, I also bellied 'neath the electric fence. The rainbow was fading so I only managed a couple of shots before it became history. With muddied jeans and soggy shoes I crawled up the grassy slope and dearly hoped the photo would show how fun the moment was.

On the homefront:
My youngest daughter returned home this evening. We visited on the deck for about an hour before her 'home friends," caught wind of her arrival. Her cell phone went wild and it wasn't 30 minutes later before she asked if she could leave for the evening.
Oh how the glorious, colorful rainbows are fleeting...

**I changed photos on this post. I like this shot better.**

Let's make believe it's for real...

If'n someone came to visit me...
Where would we go?
The answer is simple.
I'd cruise them down Broadstone Rd past Charles Church's farm. We might admire his brocolli before we had a taste or two...

Then we'd pass the old Baird Farm and head towards the center of Valle Crucis.
For sure we would check out The Candy Barrel. I'd slow down near the Mast Farm Inn to see the new bunnies. We might head back into the Valle proper to dip our toes into the river at the park or go admire the growing veggies at the SD farm. I don't know. Things go pleasantly slow here so we would have plenty of time to decide.
But eventually, we'd drive up my road and park our rear ends in the rockers on my newly cleaned deck and soak in the views of an Appalachian spring.
That's what we'd do.

I would call this our palatial shack we have made our own...

He laughs when dead bug dust falls on my face, delighted by my girlie outburst of disgust. Yet, he is not nearly as amused when the spider dribbles down its web, landing on his bicep. I smile as he squishes the bug with his bare hand.
We are high, perched on scaffolding, patching the deck ceiling.
My husband and I have a lengthy honey-do list we are working on together. Last weekend we tackled lumberjack duties. This weekend we repaired ill-fitting vinyl siding.
I'm unsure how many husbands enjoy their wives working side-by-side with them in the tool shed, but my husband seems to like my company. He makes hard, nasty work almost fun.
And he is patient. Yesterday he handed me a riveter and said, "This is your job, Rosie." And he showed me what to do with it. After I made several failed attempts with the tool, he climbed down from his wobbly walk board to my rescue.
Finally, at 7 p.m., with our back and shoulder muscles weary and our faces smudged in god-knows-what kind of bug feces, we sat in our rockers and admired our accomplishment.
Our place may not be fancy, but oh how I love shackin' up with that man.

(PS-The photo of this lovely homestead on Dutch Creek Rd in Valle Crucis Is Not our house. We should be so lucky.)

Annie likes ducks and bluebirds like Valle Crucis...

I took Annie out to the Valle Crucis wetlands yesterday afternoon where she quickly discovered her dominate 'water fowl chasing' gene. It is a very good thing ducks can fly.
And speaking of birds, I met up with Dr. Lynn Siefferman at the Goodnight Brother Sustainable Development farm yesterday. She and an ASU student were busy installing bluebird houses around the farm. Lynn is a behaviorial ecologist at ASU and is continuing her award winning research in studying plumage color of the eastern bluebird’s brightness of color and how it correlates with personality traits and choice of mate. She began her research in the Meat Camp and Todd areas of Watauga county but hopes to extend it into the Valle Crucis community.
If you own property near an open field and wouldn't mind if Lynn and a grad student put up a bird house and then occasionally access your land to study the bird's behavior, please let me know and I'll put you in touch with her. Think of it this way, the bluebird has always been a symbol of happiness. By attracting more bluebirds to the area, you'll be helping the Valle be a happier place than it already is. Thanks.